D-Day veteran dusts off top-secret equipment
15 Apr 2014 01:00 PM
An RAF veteran has visited Bletchley Park to see
the top-secret kit he used to direct aircraft over Normandy following the D-Day
landings.
Ahead of the D-Day 70th Anniversary in June, retired
sergeant Bernard Morgan went to see the once-classified Type X machine at
the Bletchley
Park heritage site in Buckinghamshire. While there, the 90-year-old
veteran met one of his modern day equivalents, Flight Lieutenant Vikki Thorpe,
an RAF aerospace battle manager.
In
the summer of 1944, Sergeant Morgan had used the Type X machine to encrypt
highly sensitive messages that told RAF aircraft where they were needed for
immediate action.
The
RAF’s air superiority before, during and after D-Day was pivotal because
it meant the Allied invasion could take place largely unchallenged from above
by the Luftwaffe or by U-boats from below.
The
Type X machines were large and heavy, requiring 4 men to carry them, and needed
a lorry each to transport and power them.
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